Post-Apocalyptic Patriarchy: American Television's Straight, White, Male Vision of Survival

by Carlen Lavigne (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2018

  $31.04

  In twenty-first-century American television, series such as Revolution, Falling Skies, The Last Ship, or The Walking Dead engage with a variety of doomsday scenarios; whether the end times come by nuclear blast, rogue artificial intelligence, pandemic, alien invasion, or zombie uprising, there's a TV show for that. These post-apocalyptic programs represent both longstanding tensions and contemporary cultural moments. Examining such apocalypses in light of events like 9/11 or the avian flu epidemic suggests some of the worries that keep us up at night. Analyzing these speculative new futures through critical lenses of gender, race, and sexuality further reveals the more specific ambitions and anxieties of a patriarchy in flux-particularly the desire to return to a mythical American frontier where the straight white male hero can take the lead in fighting off the bad guys, protecting the family, and crafting a new world order based heavily on the old. Questions about post-apocalyptic television abound: whose voices are represented? What do they want? What tomorrows are they most afraid of-and what does this tell us about the world we live in today?